Direct Drive Surf Report - 99 Sport/Air

[zeckto13]

I found another vid on YouTube of a guy with an Air and a mission delta who gets a decent wave as well not listing but uses a tonne of weight. I think our boats do like to be listed but I'm happy with my results above. Will just add a little bow weight to clean up the top, or am going to extend the height of my gate by 2 inches so that it is 11 inches tall like the Ronix shaper. Right now my gate is about 3 inches or so below the waterline when weighted. I think that may clean the wave up a bit more instead of bow weight. Here's the vid of the other guy I mentioned. https://youtu.be/5EvO1Rq44hg


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[MTRBTR]

Interesting discussion. I have a suck gate but don't have it made so that it catches that little step. I know a lot of guys say theirs works just fine that way but I still get the best wave just listing it hard with or without the suck gate. Would like to figure out a way not to have to do this. There is a thread on CCF where a guy with a 97 sport uses the nauticurl and 800 pounds on the back seat and says he gets a great wave. I recreated that with my suck gate this weekend and the wave was barely surfable. It is just way better listed in my opinion. Hoping to modify my gate like the way you guys have and see if it helps.

[Tom351]

Nice!! For any given amount of weight I have had best results with it listed.... but now I am at the point where I can't safely list it any farther so any additional weight would make the boat more balanced. I may try adding more ballast next to the engine on the non-surf side- if that makes the wave better and the boat more balanced then that would be a win-win. I'll let you know if the tweak I made to my gate helps or not....hopefully this week or next weekend.

Also, I agree that your gate is possibly too low if the boat is evenly weighted....since listing obviously raises the gate side compared to running it balanced.

[zeckto13]

Well finally got out this weekend. Only got out once but was able to get the wave dialled in so I could go rope less!i thought I would try not listing the boat first which seemed to still work. Here's a vid with all the specs in the description on YouTube. Thanks so much for all the help. The wave seemed to have good push. Was able go back a bit and be able to recover. I obviously need more practice. Hoping to get one more time this sat. before I pack it in for winter. May try listing the boat next time. And adding some bow weight if I can get some extra passengers. Here's the vid https://youtu.be/oZ1-wKRoTT4

[zeckto13]

Thanks for the tips. Makes sense. Let me know how those adjustments to your shaper turn out. I am hoping my shaper isn't too low but looks to be about the same spot on the decal as yours so should be good.

[Tom351]

Also, if you get spray with it mounted like that: just try it with the rear cup a little higher so the shaper is angled downward a bit when the boat is at rest- the raised bow at 10ish mph will angle everything back upwards a good bit- I usually have mine at a decent downward angle to reduce spray:

about like this is how i run mine: you can see that the rear cup is much higher on the hull color line than the front.

[Tom351]

Nice work! That has much better fit and finish than mine. I have made a test tweak to mine- have not tested yet... this may make it worse, or maybe better. My thinking is that it might help if I reduce the amount of water that slips off of the upper and lower edges of the shaper plate.....or it may make things worse... or spray like crazy, but I will find out.

(shown farther forward than when in use - because of trailer guide)

[zeckto13]

Here are pics of the gate- along with the side view dimension that you asked about on YouTube:

It is at a 45 degree angle and the surface is 8" x 12". That does not include the little extension that goes into the step of the hull...obviously this shaper design cannot switch sides due to this extension but I really wanted to divert the water out of that narrow/lower part of hull. I run it about a foot or two (have tried various distances) forward of where the hull angles toward the swim platform. Also, you may notice that the plate is offset downward on my shaper....this is because the suction cups cannot go any lower thanks to that step in the hull. All of this being said... when I made the in the first post: I was using a previous plate on the shaper that did not reach into the step and was not offset (so it could have been used on either side- and was a little higher since the plate was not offset downward).. But my wave has more push with this newer shaper design. Also, the green plate is just a backer since the white "face" of the shaper is fairly thin and I was not sure if it would hold up- the green cutting board was thicker, but not quite large enough so I just attached the larger white face directly on top of it.

Well built a shaper like yours...here's some pics. Going out this weekend to test.



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[Tom351]

If the 6'8" fails I have an 8'5" Mini Mal to try.

Yeah, that might be fun either way...should have tons of front to back range...I'm tempted to bring a longboard out after seeing this:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUnrkNChJCF/

[Blamey]

Yes, give that 6'-8" a try for sure- the 6'0" and 6'4" boards that work really well for me are both twin fin fish- pretty wide, and with not much rocker at all.

If the 6'8" fails I have an 8'5" Mini Mal to try.

[Tom351]

I have a 5' rocket and I couldn't go ropless at all. I'm 235lbs so I thought that was it but my friend who weighs about 190 also had issues. I have a 6'8" ocean surfboard that I might try next time. I thought the issues was my wake, but now think it may just be the board.

I got ballast and made a suck gate. I was all ready to surf this summer but after two failed sessions with the LF rocket I lost motivation.

Now that I know I'm not the only one that had difficulty with the LF Rocket, I'm going to try again with a ocean board.

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Yes, give that 6'-8" a try for sure- the 6'0" and 6'4" boards that work really well for me are both twin fin fish- pretty wide, and with not much rocker at all.

[GMLIII]

Try a 60 inch Liquid Force Keen board. I just purchased the 2018 model and it seems whole the wave well . I was able to fade way back at 195 lbs in the wave with no problem

[Blamey]

We rode this weekend on a 5'-4" Liquid Force Rocket wakersurfer instead of the ocean board that I typically bring. We had to slow down to 9.5mph (on GPS) to be able to go ropeless for any amount of time and there was very little margin for error- if we started fading back at all we would lose the wave- compared to when I ride a 6'0" or 6'4" ocean board it almost feels impossible to fade out the back of the wave, you can recover much easier with the larger board.

I have a 5' rocket and I couldn't go ropless at all. I'm 235lbs so I thought that was it but my friend who weighs about 190 also had issues. I have a 6'8" ocean surfboard that I might try next time. I thought the issues was my wake, but now think it may just be the board.

I got ballast and made a suck gate. I was all ready to surf this summer but after two failed sessions with the LF rocket I lost motivation.

Now that I know I'm not the only one that had difficulty with the LF Rocket, I'm going to try again with a ocean board.

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[Tom351]

Yep, this is with all of the weight....I think the 5'-4" is just a good bit smaller than we are used to...it worked, but with zero margin for error- riding the ocean board was much more fun

[zeckto13]

Was that with the extra weight on the seat (the 475+275)? I will be getting out next weekend.


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